Dell PowerVault 50F (Fibre Channel Switch) - Manual (Page 21)

Introduction 1-1
    
  

The Dell™ PowerVault™ 51F is an 8-port Fibre Channel switch that consists of a sys-
tem board, microprocessor board, connectors for supporting up to four dual-port
interface cards, and firmware for building and managing a fabric. A fabric is an active,
intelligent, and nonshared interconnect scheme for Fibre Channel server and storage
nodes. One or more switches interconnected create a Fibre Channel fabric.
Figure 1-1 shows the switch view of a PowerVault 51F.

 
 
  


This chapter discusses:

PowerVault 51F switch features

Performance

Manageability

Reliability

Serviceability

System components

Switching function

Embedded port

System firmware

Universal ports

Short-wave laser (SWL) fiber-optic gigabit interface converter (GBIC) module

Long-wave laser (LWL) fiber-optic GBIC module

Copper GBIC module

Hot-pluggable power supplies